Shocker Art Center

I asked my parents to go to the Walker with me. I wanted to see the new addition to the building. Mom and Dad aren't exactly contemporary art fans, but since they're hardly reactionary, I wasn't too worried. I figured the worst that could happen is that we wouldn't get the art, or we'd be bored by the esoteric stuff, or that Mom might be a bit saddened by the Warhol disaster exhibition. Besides, admission was on me.

Everything went well at first. Mom got into the exhibit on prefab architecture and the high modernist stuff that was just shapes and colors. Dad was amused by the Huang Yong Ping Retrospective which included live lizards and scorpions, an emmense snake bone thing, and a giant herbalist gord with little poops coming out of it. The sculpture of a dog peeing in the shape of the contental US was pretty easy to read. (Poop seemed to be prevalent at the Walker.)

Then we went to the new wings where I was confronted with a choice between Warhol's celebrity disaster exhibit and the Kara Walker. Like toddlers drawn to knives, my parents headed straight for the Kara Walker gallery, and all I had time to do was say, "Uh...that's some pretty disturbing stuff in there." I think Dad was actually offended. "That's not too cool." he said. But it was hard to tell what Mom thought. She was actually laughing. Sometimes Mom laughs at strange things like news footage of people escaping from airplane wreckage and stories of political corruption. Once, she laughed all the way through reading an entire Faulkner novel. We soon left Kara Walker, with Mom saying "the woman is out of her mind."

In spite of that bit of discomfort, the visit went well. Mom was impressed by the layout of the galleries and they had some pretty cool jewerly marked down in the gift shop.